Julie Chen looks back at 20 years of Big Brother, calls it reality TV's "bastard child"

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"To be honest, I wasn't good. I didn't feel comfortable, like, it showed," Chen says of the first season of Big Brother, which premiered on July 5, 2000. "I didn't own it. I didn't know how to be." Chen says Big Brother back then "felt so overproduced, like stop trying to be such a serious show. It should be more fun-loving, like let's not try and break down what Dr. Drew Pinsky, like, you know, the psychology of this person, you know? That stuff kind of feels like, I can't believe we put that out." Chen admits now that she'd rather the show be enduring than met with acclaim. "We were always looked at as like, you know, the bastard child," she says of Big Brother never earning an Emmy nomination. "So it was like, all right. But I'd rather not get nominated ever and still have it renewed every year. You know? Because some of these other shows got a lot of accolades and awards... but they haven't marked a 20-year anniversary." ALSO: Big Brother has mostly been garbage for 20 years, unable to escape its racism, violence, and ugliness.